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Transfer relations represent analytical solutions of the linear theory of circular arches, relating each one of the kinematic and static variables at an arbitrary cross-section to the kinematic and static variables at the initial cross-section. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the significance of the transfer relations for structural analysis by means of three examples taken from civil engineering.

The first example refers to an arch bridge, the second one to the vault of a metro station and the third one to a real-scale test of a segmental tunnel ring.

The main conclusions drawn from these three examples are as follows: increasing the number of hangers/columns of the investigated arch bridge entails a reduction of the maximum bending moment of the arch, allowing it to approach, as much as possible, the desired thrust-line behavior; compared to the conventional in situ cast method, a combined precast and in situ cast method results in a decrease of the maximum bending moment of an element of the vault of the studied underground station by 46%; and the local behavior of the joints governs both the structural convergences and the bearing capacity of the tested segmental tunnel ring.

The three examples underline that the transfer relations significantly facilitate computer-aided engineering of circular arch structures, including arch bridges, vaults of metro stations and segmental tunnel rings.

Interorganizational cooperation (IOC) is like harnessing a swan, a crab, and a pike to a single wagon and still expecting it to go. One issue that appears significant under such conditions is building trust and inscribing it into the structure of IOC. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationships between trust and IOC structure.

Trust‐structure relationships are studied by drawing upon a case study of complex and effective IOC in The Early Childhood Center in Israel.

The analysis reveals several structural factors that support the building and maintenance of trust: choice of contribution, involvement in decision making, committee configuration, IOC culture, the director's role, and the representatives' high‐ranking positions and professional background.

Three conditions help to inscribe trust into IOC structure: Low risk and minor expectations from the IOC, a leader willing to share information throughout the IOC structure, and high positions and professional representatives.

The study contributes to IOC literature by highlighting the fact that trust between organizations cannot depend on the goodwill of particular people, but must have an organizational structure to enable and support it.

This article deals with how to test for and evaluate interdependence among control practices in a management control system using structural equation modeling. Empirical research on the levers of control (LOC) framework is used as an example. In LOC research, a path model approach to interdependence has been developed. The appropriateness of this approach is evaluated, developed, and compared with the correlation of residuals approach (seemingly unrelated regression) implemented in the wider complementarity literature. Empirical examples of the different models are shown and compared by using a data set on LOC of 120 SBUs in Sweden. The empirical results show that modeling interdependence among control practices in a management control system as non-recursive (bi-directional) paths or as residual correlations evidently affects the conclusions drawn about interdependence in terms of both presence and magnitude. The two models imply different views on how to conceptualize interdependence and are not statistically and empirically comparable. If using non-recursive path models, several model specification issues appear. To be able to identify such models, this needs to be carefully considered in the theory and research design prior to data collection.

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the influence exerted on the thought of F.A. Hayek by the work of the biologist and founder of system theory, Ludwig von Bertalanffy. The author’s methodology includes textual analysis and archival work. It is argued first of all that Bertalanffy provided Hayek with a conceptual framework in terms of which he could articulate the philosophical significance of his theoretical psychology. In particular, Bertalanffy’s work afforded Hayek a set of concepts that helped him to articulate the relationship between mental and physical events – that is, between mind and body – implied by his theory. The second part of the chapter builds on the first by exploring how Hayek subsequently applied the abstract conceptual framework or ontology set out by Bertalanffy to the economy. In this way, Bertalanffy’s ideas helped Hayek to articulate and shape his emerging view of the economy as a complex adaptive system, which consists of different ‘levels of organisation’, which displays ‘structural’ or ‘emergent properties’, and which evolves over time on the basis of those group-level properties.

The purpose of this paper is to examine three explanatory perspectives in the academic literature on informal economies that seek to account for agents’ engagement in informal economic practices.

The paper draws on Pierre Bourdieu’s reflexive sociology to interrogate the existing perspectives and to provide a conceptual rethinking of informal economies and informal economic practices.

The paper reveals an inherent scholastic epistemocentrism in the established perspectives. By privileging either an objectivist or a subjectivist viewpoint, these accounts do not examine the practical knowledge and logic that constitute agents’ knowledgeable engagement in informal economic practices. By making use of Bourdieu’s thinking tools of “field”, “capital” and “the habitus”, the paper offers a conceptual rethinking of informal economic practices as the product of a dialectic relationship between socially objectivated structures and subjective representations and experiences.

The paper introduces a reflexive rethinking of informality that draws on but also develops an emergent literature on informal economic practices as relational and context bound.

This study aims to identify stakeholders’ perceptions of the effects associated with different components of intellectual capital (IC) on the sustainable development (SD) practices of higher education institutions (HEIs).

The empirical approach uses a structural equation model to provide new empirical findings in relation to 738 students and 587 lecturers/researchers at seven Portuguese state HEIs through quantitative research.

The results obtained are, firstly, important contributions to the literature on the IC and SD practices of HEIs, as a relationship between these two constructs is confirmed, especially through relational capital (RC) and structural capital (SC). Secondly, the stakeholders considered show different perceptions of the influence of the components of HEIs’ IC on these institutions’ SD practices, and thirdly, perception of the economic dimension is most influenced.

The empirical findings indicate the need to provide better information about HEIs’ policies and practices of SD and how the latter contribute to the SD of the institution and its region of influence.

No previous studies investigate students and teachers/researchers’ perceptions of the social, environmental, economic and organizational dimensions of SD in HEIs and at the same time how those perceptions can be influenced by the components of IC (e.g. human capital, SC, RC) in that institution.

By using two cognitive tools, metaphors and analogies, structural concepts can be made more observable and touchable for architects. These tools can help architects and designers to physically demonstrate structural concepts for better understanding. Since familiarity with the structural concepts is imperative for architects, it is important to determine the extent in which architects sharpen and solidify their understanding of structural concept using two very valuable cognitive tools, metaphors and analogies. Although in recent years, the number of studies focusing on the usage of metaphor and analogy was on the rise, very few works have included views and opinions of correspondent users in the architectural domain. Furthermore, having both metaphor and analogy under one investigation could help the researcher to see which one, metaphor or analogy, professional architects prefer to use more and which one of them architects use in various stages in their design process. In this regard, purposive sampling was applied to collect the data from ten professional Iranian architects who had the experience of working in this domain for more than 10 years. The participants of this study went through a semi-structured interview and their reports were analysed qualitatively. The findings reveal that while designing, Iranian professional architects do not have any preferences because they can equally apply both metaphors and analogies, but when dealing with their students in academic setting, using metaphor as a cognitive tool can lead to better results. Furthermore, Iranian architects use metaphor more in the initial stages of the architectural design process because according to them this physiognomic perception enhance understanding of a design situation and stimulate creative solutions to the problem at hand. Conversely, analogy is mainly used in the concept generation phase.

Clusters of foreign manufacturing plants are traditionally explained by characteristics of the entry location such as immobile resources or agglomeration advantages, but an alternative explanation is that social or economic relations among firms in the home country facilitate interorganizational learning about entry locations. Such interorganizational learning reduces uncertainty, leading to heterogeneous diffusion of the plant location choices among organizations that are socially proximate in the home country. We examine this hypothesis through analysis of the effect of industry, lending ties, and board interlocks among Japanese firms on their entries into Europe, and find that shared industry and structural equivalence in the board interlock network are strong predictors of mimetic nation choice. The findings suggest that nation choices follow an innovation diffusion pattern, and that Japanese firms have paths of influence like those of U.S. firms.

This paper aims to examine language learners’ critical multimodal literacy practices with a moving-image text, focusing on text comprehension and interpretation rather than text production. It takes a critical perspective towards multimodality and proposes the simultaneous emphasis on critical and multimodal literacies.

This qualitative teacher-inquiry adopts critical multimodal literacy as the framework for understanding learners’ literacy practices. The course implementation highlights images, sounds and words as encompassing the five modes of visual, aural, linguistic, gestural and spatial (Arola et al., 2014) in emphasizing the multimodal in critical multimodal literacy, and the purposeful organization of the images, sounds and words as reflecting the critical in critical multimodal literacy. The analysis also adopts Serafini’s (2010) concentric perceptual, structural and ideological perspectives as the tenets of critical multimodal literacy.

The findings show that focusing on images, sounds, words and their purposeful organization enabled the students to critically examine a moving-image text through considerations for the multiple modes and arriving at the structural and ideological interpretive perspectives.

This study fills a gap in the literature, as very little research has been done to investigate the ways in which language learners engage with, that is, comprehend and interpret, moving-image multimodal texts. In addition, it presents a critical multimodal literacy framework based on Serafini’s (2010) tripartite perspectives and offers pedagogical suggestions for incorporating critical multimodal literacy in language classrooms.

In a changing trade landscape, global trade transaction relies on a global supply-chain network. Customs clearance to cross borders is critical to enhancing the competitiveness of both importers and exporters. As such, each country has adopted an authorized economic operator (AEO) program to promote the security of both imported and exported cargo as well as expedite freight movements. The purpose of this paper is to discover the factors which should be taken into account to utilize an AEO program, and to look at the causal relations between these factors.

This study conducted a survey on 201 AEO programs in Korea. With partial least squares, the structure model is tested using the coefficient value of the determination of the dependent variable, explained by the sign and scale of the path coefficient, statistical significance, and leading variable. Moreover, this study performed bootstrap re-sampling to verify all paths and significance.

It was found that AEO external pressure, training capacity, and sustainability are shown to have a significant impact on AEO performance. Furthermore, for the group with a high level of AEO application, training capacity and AEO sustainability are shown to have a greater effect on AEO performance. For the group with a low level of AEO application, internal regulation is shown to have a bigger impact on AEO performance.

This study sets itself apart from previous ones in that it examines AEO application for trade security and facilitation with regard to customs, which would affect global supply-chain management.